Navel Gazing and Future Proofing

We need to evaluate our practices regularly. The catalyst for my recent naval gazing is the presentation I  prepared for Connections2025, The Thoughtful Ancestor: leaving a large footprint for future generations. I have a big footprint but need to ensure that it's easy for my descendants to follow.

I've been reviewing my practices, the products I use and my genealogy budget and trying to make my genealogy assets easy to access for future generations. Following is a summary of my recent thoughts and actions. 

I am looking at my assets in three categories: Digital, Physical and Cranial and using as a prompt this process.

My process for future-proofing my genealogy assets. 
Evaluation is vital at each stage of the process

Social Media

X formerly Twitter - I am no longer posting there but have kept my account. I have replaced this product with Bluesky where many of my genimates have accounts.  I am @geniaus.bluesky.social.

Instagram - I set up an Instagram for family history purposes after Twitter became unattractive. I'm still on Insta but not actively posing since moving to Bluesky

Facebook - I have a huge investment and history so won't be ditching it at the moment. My GeniAusPage is my main vehicle for sharing family history news and views. 

Family Tree Software

Family Historian. While I still retain Family Historian for my main database I have resisted upgrading to the latest version.

RootsMagic  I started using RootsMagic to manage the people in my CareyBay2283 One Place Study. Although I don't have a handle on its sourcing system I appreciate its fairly seamless syncing with Ancestry, FamilySearch and FindMyPast. This may become my primary tool in the future.

I now have several projects in RootsMagic 10. I find it good for managing the DNA matches of some of the kits I manage. 

TNG  I use The Next Generation of Genealogy Sitebuilding to maintain my family website. I can upload a gedcom file from any other product to TNG. 

I am concerned that when I turn my toes up no-one will keep the website going.  Over Easter two of my offspring committed to this task so I won't be ditching TNG or my website in the near future. 

GeniAus Website This is where I host my family site. I will keep it going while I am able but I need to have insurance lest my descendants run out of time or money to maintain it. 

WikiTree I am committed to Wikitree as a collaborative tree. I am working to ensure that my ancestors' and forebears' stories are not lost so I aim to give them all a profile on this platform. It's a future-proofing exercise.

Other Activities

Blogging I am committed to blogging about family history and to record my personal history. I use two free platforms, Blogger and Wordpress.com although I prefer Blogger because it is much easier to tweak their templates and they don't sprinkle my posts with ads as is the Wordpress practice. 

I see that several of my genimates have moved to Substack. I am not convinced that this is the platform for me. I will sit back and see how it progresses. I have seen too many Bright Shiny Objects come and go to move platforms when I am satisfied with what I have. 

FindaGrave In addition to adding details of ancestors' final resting places to the FindaGrave site I have set up several virtual cemeteries on that site. I have one each for biological relatives of  my husband and me. I also maintain one for a Cousin and one to support my One Place Study.

One Place Study I'm not sure I can do this justice but as no-one else was recording the history and  stories of the place where I live I commenced this project last year. 

Surname Study I now realise that I have bitten off more than I can chew with this project I commenced in 2014. I did not realise that Curry, my maiden name, was such a common surname, I should have chosen Pusell, my grandmother's maiden name which is not so common. Currently this project is stalled with a database of several thousand persons in Family Historian. The study blog is still active and will remain so. 

Cranial Assets or What's in my head I'm working on this. Some are things I am not yet ready to share. I keep a diary in an Excel spreadsheet and blog at jillballau but need to do more. 

Money Matters I need to give this some thought and will report in a future post. 

Showing off our Town

I heard during the week that one of my mates, Brenda and her companion Charlie B., would be visiting Newcastle yesterday on one of my favourite cruise ships, Seven Seas Mariner. Brenda is one of the guest lecturers on the next leg of the current world cruise. 

I whipped off a quick message asking Brenda if she would like to catch up with Robert and me. We arranged to meet Brenda and Charlie at the Cruise Ship Shuttle stop where we had previously collected cruisers for a spin around the area. As we approached the site where we were to collect them there was no sign of the shuttle. After some furious messaging we discovered that the shuttle stop was in a new location. 

With Brenda found I settled in the back seat with she and Charlie B. Robert, our chauffeur, launched into his tour guide spiel while Brenda and I gossiped away. 

Back Seat Driver, Charlie B, with his companion Baary

As Brenda had visited Newcastle on several occasions we did not need to give her the full tourist treatment, Nevertheless Robert pointed out many of the historic buildings in the city.

Our first stop was for a stroll along the Newcastle Memorial Walk where we looked at the exhibits and admired our stunning coastline. Robert added the role of photographer to that of chauffeur and tour guide.

Some of Newcastle's beautiful beaches viewed from the Memorial Walk

Charlie was happy to pose along the walk

Charlie was careful not to fall

Brenda and I posed with a shy Charlie

After our stroll I was keen to show Brenda and Charlie our backyard on Lake Macquarie so we drove on to Warners Bay.

Robert left Brenda and I to chat while he went in search of some Australian delicacies for her to share with her shipmates. 

Brenda, Charlie and I sitting across the Lake from our home

Charlie kindly looked after the treats for their shipmates

After so much touristing we were in need of refreshment at a local cafe.
Brenda chose something sweet.

Charlie was dwarfed by some of the public art along the Lake's edge

We were so grateful to Robert and Charlie for leading us

We returned Brenda to the shuttle in plenty of time to brush up on her talk for today

It's always great to catch up with friends. Thanks to Brenda and Charlie B. for sharing your day with us. 

Two Surprises in One Day

Yesterday I received a notification telling me that this blog had made it on the list of Feedspot's 100 Best Genealogy Blogs and Websites in 2025.

https://bloggers.feedspot.com/genealogy_blogs/

I am flabbergasted and honoured to find my little blog, that was launched in 2008, ranked in a very healthy spot seventeen years later on this list of international genealogy blogs.

Coincidentally the power of blogs to preserve and share family stories also hit home yesterday.

Just yesterday I found a new 1st cousin once removed as the result of a large DNA match popping up. On contacting me this young man said "Only recently have I started hearing about the family but always been curious hence why I finally did the test". and then "I was interested as we never knew our real grandparents and their backgrounds and also just curious to know how far back we go and the rest."

Over the years I have blogged the stories of this chap's ancestors in posts on my GeniAus blog. I may have overwhelmed him but I was able to quickly share links to stories about his grandparents, earlier generations, his aboriginality, his convict ancestors, war heroes etc. He now has plenty of time to digest this info over the coming weeks and months. I am thrilled that I have a resource that can help new to me cousins discover their backgrounds. 

The power of blogging to preserve the stories of earlier generations cannot be underestimated.

Ten years ago - I got a Guernsey for Congress

Reposted from ten years ago - as I plan for Connections2025 I remember my delight at being included on the program in 2015. 

Tuesday, March 10, 2015

I got a Guernsey!

When the call for papers for AFFHO Congress 2015 closed I was on a river cruise somewhere between Budapest and Bucharest and, although I had prepared some submissions I was distracted from submitting them on time.

I was disappointed that I forgot to put the proposals in but I decided that I would just rock up to Congress and feast on the banquet of opportunities available there. I was thrilled when, some time between my holidays last year, I was approached to be an Official Conference Blogger with Pauleen Cass and Shauna Hicks as it gave me an opportunity to be involved with the event.... because I like being involved. We have endeavoured to drum up some enthusiasm and interest in the event.

It took me about 5 seconds to respond to an invitation I received from Conference Convenor, Kerrie Gray, a couple of weeks ago. After saying YES I realised what a privilege it is to be moderating the very last session at Congress, A Panel : Family history research- why leave home to do it? I got quite a buzz when I saw that my name had been added to the Conference Program. Thank you to whomever put my name forward, I am both humbled and honoured.

I warned Kerrie that I am a bit rough around the edges. However, I know that with the cast of panelists: Josh Taylor from the US, Carole Riley from Australia and David Holman from the UK we will provide you with some lighthearted banter and serious food for thought at the end of four exciting and educative days.

Mr GeniAus who always brings me down to earth reminded  me that many people hit the road before the last session of a conference. It would be fantastic if you could hang around for what I hope will be a fitting finale to the event.

I'll be wearing my Guernsey with pride.